


nobody ever taught me how to stay

by bookishgypsy



Category: Dynasty (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 14:25:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18576313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookishgypsy/pseuds/bookishgypsy
Summary: Maybe she’s gone about this all the wrong way. Maybe this wasn't the way to prove to him how much she cared about him. Maybe this wasn't the way to win him back. Maybe she'd gone and just ruined everything again.Why couldn't she get this right?Fallon/Liam. Oneshot.





	nobody ever taught me how to stay

**Author's Note:**

> After those promotional images were posted from 2x18, I had a few people ask me to write something based off them, so this is my attempt at that. It was hell to write when the writers decided to throw Ashley away as a girlfriend and I had to re-work my whole plot so she wasn’t his girlfriend. Anyways. I don’t love this and I’d love to spend a week perfecting it but with the episode airing Friday, I just need to let it go and post it. 
> 
> I figure this episode won’t go anything like what I’ve written but I hope y’all enjoy regardless.

Fallon Carrington didn’t do _feelings._

Except that was a lie, because she _did_ do feelings. Specifically, ever since Liam Ridley waltzed into her life, saving her from her inevitably failing marriage to Jeff, who just so happened to also be her cousin (but that was story for another day), taking the fault when it came to her relationship with Steven, and even helping her search high and low for dirt on his favorite Uncle Max when he found out about what took place in New York.

And that was just naming a few.

Anytime she needed him, at every moment and at every turn, he was there for her, even when she really, truly did not deserve it. And ever since he paraded himself into her life, she’s felt things for him she’s never felt for anyone before and did things she’s never done for anyone before. 

But that’d all gone to hell and back when she fucked it all up time and time and time again.

Feelings were messy and tricky and complicated and she wanted nothing to do with them anymore. But that wish was short lived and went flying out the window the moment Liam Ridley walked into her office at that publishing house, forcing her to face everything she felt for him, _still_ feels, all over again.

And his _book._

It was about her. It was about _them_. All about how he fell in love with her. And how she fell in love with _him_ , but couldn’t commit to admitting how she felt about him. God, she’d put him through the wringer.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid._

She just….she needed to focus. They were on good terms now. Kind of, she thinks. They’re working together civilly and not screaming at each other. She figures that that’s a good start if anything. It’s just…she’s finding it incredibly difficult to focus on anything _but_ him when he’s sitting not even two feet in front of her asking her why she’s telling the press the two of them are dating again.

“I’m trying to boost your pre-sales,” she states ever so simply, as if there couldn’t even possibly be another explanation. “And I didn’t _tell_ them we were dating, really. They just assumed we were because of the pictures from the event and I haven’t corrected them. Yet.”

“Alright,” he states, cool, calm and collected. Well, he didn’t explode on her, so she takes that as a good sign, too. That went better than she expected it to. “Isn’t that kind of lying though? We’re not technically dating.”

 _I know,_ she wants to say. _I know. I wish we were though._ But she doesn’t have the nerve, so she just settles for: “I’m sorry, okay? But the pre-sale numbers are a huge deal in this industry and I’m just trying to help you. I just want this to go well for you, that’s all.”

“And I can see that. I can,” he reaffirms for a second time. She’s grateful he seems to pick up on her honesty, that she’s not just doing this for the hell of it, even if maybe she kind of is. She truly cares about him and his career, she does, but the whole press mess was distracting her, she couldn’t lie about that.“I just wish you’d ran it by me when you first heard the story broke so I didn’t have to find out from an article on E! News.”

“You’re right. I should have told you,” she nods, eyes finding his in the bright sunlit office of hers, yellow hues filling the room. She can’t look at him long, needing to turn away and focus on anything else _but_ him. “I’m sorry.”

“Well, alright. I guess there’s nothing we can do now except roll with it, until you correct them.” Silence encompasses them, neither sure what to say next, both pairs of eyes darting anywhere and everywhere but never settling on the others, until Liam’s finally brave enough to break it. “Are we good here? I’ve got dinner plans with a friend.”

“Oh.” She tries to keep the hurt she’s feeling from showing on her facial features, but she’s almost positive he catches it. He never misses a thing about her. “Yeah, we’re good. See you tomorrow.”

As soon as his body disappears around the corner, she folds her arms across her desk and buries her head into the darkness. Why did she even agree to publish his book? She should have threw his book in the trash with the rest of the dumb books she took a pass at. But it was Liam, and she couldn’t do that to him. Not with all he’s done for her. Not after she _read_ that book and found out that he was actually a _really_ talented writer.

Everything was just all way too damn difficult and complicated.

She stays locked in her thoughts, content to just let the day pass without anymore occurrences and just fall back into her bed and ignore the rest of the world, until she faintly hears her name in the background.

“Fallon.”

She lifts her head up from the desk, finding Kirby standing right before her, arms crossed across her chest. “Hmm?”

“That was the fourth time I called your name,” the redhead says sitting in the chair Liam occupied just moments ago, making herself comfortable. “Did you not hear me?”

“Sorry,” she mutters so uncharacteristically quiet, it’s almost inaudible.

“You’re distracted.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yeah,” the Australians’ accent rings through the room with her words and she lets a small laugh out at Fallon’s response. “You are.”

Fallon just shakes her head left to right, muttering a quiet, “I’m fine.”

“It’s Liam, isn’t it?” Kirby’s words come out like a question, but she can tell it’s not a question at all. She knows exactly where her minds at. “You still love him.”

“I don’t…” Kirby’s eyes narrow in on her and it stops her before she finishes even trying to deny the claim. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

“Fallon, you need to tell him how you feel.”

And _that_ is a question she doesn’t feel like facing yet, so she tries to sidetrack her friend by changing the subject.

“I didn’t get to tell you yet, but I read his book.”

Kirby leans back further into the chair, pulling her feet up on Fallon’s desk. “That bad?”

“No, Kirby. It was amazing.” She places her pen down carefully - her paperwork wasn’t getting done right now. “It was…it was about us.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, it was _our_ story. And it was sweet and it was clever…and probably the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me.” A pause. “And it made me realize that I need to stop running away from how I feel about him. I want to be with him. And I’ve wanted to be for a while now.”

“Well, obviously.” Fallon leans back in her chair to narrow her eyes in on the copper-headed girl in front of her. “Sorry, it’s just nice to see you finally catching up to what we’ve all known for a while.”

She waits a moment, pondering whether to say another thing plaguing her thoughts. She’s not used to sharing her thoughts and feelings with others, but Kirby seems to genuinely care about her as a friend, so she takes the chance as terrifying and daunting as it was.

“He and Ashley broke up.”

“Fallon,” Kirby’s breathes out. “You’ve gotta tell him how you feel."

“No thank you.”

“He wouldn’t have forgave you for last week so quickly if he didn’t have some sort of feelings left for you. Seriously, Fallon. He didn’t need to forgive you. And honestly, I probably wouldn’t have.” She wishes Kirby would just leave it and let it be, so she could sit and sulk in all her feelings on her own, but she continues again despite those unspoken wishes. “He needs to know your still an option for him.”

“I don’t know, Kirby.”

“What’s stopping you?"

She pauses a moment. Because she knows why she’s afraid. She just….doesn’t feel so confident in voicing that fear with anyone. But…it’s Kirby. And they’re kind of friends now. And if Kirby was going to be honest with her - she was going to have to be honest with her, too.

“I’m not sure I could handle another rejection from him.”

“Listen, you let your fears run the show last time and you might have missed out on something great.”

The way Kirby says it makes it sound so simple. But it’s not. It’s not simple at all. Fallon is left with only one final thought before Kirby sees herself out of her office.

“You love him and I’m willing to bet money he still loves you, too. For God’s sake, Fallon. He wrote a book about you. That doesn’t come out of a person who hates you. Do you really want to let it all go without really finding out just because you’re afraid?”

//

“There’s someone here to see Liam.”

Her head peeks up from the laptop screen in front of her at the sound of Allison’s voice, her head poking in around the doorframe. She has to hold back the laugh that’s screaming to come out at her assistants entrance, the way she seems to just be absolutely unsure how to act around her.

“Well, he’s not back from lunch yet, Allison.”

“What do you want me to tell them?"

Fallon can only roll her eyes at the absolute stupidity in her ability to not understand what she meant by _he’s not back yet_. _That, Allison,_ she wants to yell out, _that’s what I want you to tell them._ “Just send them in, I’ll talk to them.”

Her brunette assistant disappears around the corner, Fallon not able to hold back the second eye roll from only the small conversation, only for a familiar blonde to walk in to her office not even a minute later.

“Ashley?”

“Oh. Fallon. Hi,” she says, the confusion clear in her tone as her light eyes dark back and forth between her and the rest of the office, holding a small cardboard box against her frame. “What are you doing here?”

“I own the publishing company,” she states simply. The confusion in face on Ashley’s face is quick and clear when her eyes narrow in and her face creases together. “It’s a long story.”

“I just came by to bring some things of Liam’s he left at my place,” the blonde says lifting the box slightly. “Is there somewhere I can leave them?”

“You can just leave them here,” Fallon mutters quietly pointing off to the side of her desk. “I’ll get them to him when he gets back.”

The statement is followed by an uncomfortable silence, neither of them sure what to say next. Not after their last encounter ended with sirens and police reports.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to shave your eyebrows off or anything this time.” She breathes a silent breath of relief when a grin appears on Ashley’s facial features, a small laugh even coming from the small body. “Sorry about that by the way. It was childish and immature.”

“It’s…alright. It’s done and over with,” she waves her hand, dismissing it all so quickly. It only makes her wish she had the ability to let things go easily and not hold so many grudges. “I mean, they grew back!”

“It was still wrong of me.”

“And I shouldn’t have been such a bitch to you and for that, I’m sorry. I just knew how hurt he was. I was just trying to protect him.”

“Again, my fault.”

“It’s all in the past,” she brushes it off so simply. “I saw the magazine covers this morning. About you two being together again.”

“Oh. _That_. We’re not together. We were at a press event and someone got a picture. I just…. chose to not deny it. I thought….I thought it might help up his pre-sales.”

“Oh. E! News reached out to me for my comment on it, actually.”

“Really?”

“Turns out they _really_ care who Fallon Carrington’s ex-husband dates.”

“Are you…up to helping me with a little public misconception to help possibly bring his pre-sales up?”

The blonde wordlessly nods in the brunettes direction, when Liam comes in, evidently shocked to find the two of them together, amicably talking, not ripping each others hair out.

“Ashley,” he states, nodding once in her direction to acknowledge her presence.

“Hey,” she smiles towards him. “I was just dropping off a few things you left behind.”

“Oh,” he says eyeing the small box near Fallon’s desk. “Well, thanks.”

Ashley nods in Fallon’s direction, a tell tale sign that their plan was a go. “Well, I should get going. Nice to see you both.”

//

“Thank you for doing that,” Fallon says when the cameras have stopped rolling and Ashley steps in her direction from behind the frame. “You really didn’t owe me anything.”

The blonde starts pulling the mic pack off her, wires lose and tangled, shrugging. “I just want what’s best for him, too.”

She only smiles at the shorter girl, “Well, I appreciate it.” 

Fallon watches on as Ashley untangles all her wires silently, pulling the microphone from behind her, unsure of what to say next. She didn’t really picture them ever seeing each other again, let alone being nice to one another.

“He loves you, you know.”

That stops her dead in her tracks.

“What?”

“Liam,” she says as it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s why I had to call things off between us.”

Okay, that was a turn she didn’t see coming. “ _You_ ended it?”

“It was pretty clear I was just a distraction from the beginning. He’s so caught up in you. I mean, have you _read_ his book?”

The small smile that forms on her mouth is uncontrollable no matter how hard she tries to stop it. “I did.”

“It was pretty obvious to me when he finally let me read it, that his heart wasn’t in it like mine was. He loves you, Fallon. And I can see you love him, too. Don’t you?” Fallon can’t respond, she wants to say yes, she just _can’t_. She freezes up and finds herself turning away from the girl before her. “Well, I’ve gotta get back to work now. See you.”

“Wait, Ashley,” Fallon calls after her once she’s started heading towards the exit. “We’re having a masquerade ball at the manor tonight and if you wanted to come…you’re welcome to drop by.”

“Sure. I’d love to. I’ll see you tonight, Fallon.”

//

“Oh, good,” she starts speaking immediately when she sees Liam walk in, in his dark blue suit and white undershirt. “You’re here. We need….”

“Fallon, what the hell is going on with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I just caught the latest E! News segment. You know, about us dating and all that. The segment with _Ashley._ ”

“I was hoping you would,” she smiles up at him, proud and satisfied. “You’re pre-sale’s are skyrocketing.”

“Fallon, this isn’t about the pre-sales.”

She looks up from her desk, “Hmm?”

“When you told me you just hadn’t denied it yet, I assumed you were going to release a statement that said we _weren’t_ dating, soon.”

“Well, change of plans. And it’s working out great.”

“How…how did you even convince Ashley to go along with this?”

She shrugs nonchalantly, “She offered to help.”

“So, you two are like friends now?”

“No, we’re just being civil with each other. I grew up. She grew up,” she says easily, but the look on his face tells her he’s not in the mood for jokes. “We both just want what’s best for you.”

“It just seems all really petty for a boost in pre-sales that were already doing _very_ well.”

She tries to put as much depth and sincerity into her words when she says, “I’m just doing it because of how much I care about you, Liam."

“Well, it kind of feels like you’re doing it because of how much you care about the money.”

He leaves at that, storming out from the room and leaving her second guessing absolutely everything she’s been doing with this stupid scheme.

And, okay.

Maybe she’s gone about this all the wrong way. Maybe this wasn't the way to prove to him how much she cared about him. Maybe this wasn't the way to win him back. Maybe she'd gone and just ruined everything again.

Why couldn't she get this right?

//

She watches on, his back towards to hers, Ashley and him busy in whatever conversation they were having as they wait for their drinks by the bar. She wonders what their talking about. Her? The book? Maybe they’re getting back together. She couldn’t blame him if he went back to her after all the shit she’s pulled the past few days.

She’s shaken out of her train of thoughts when Sam walks up to her, holding a flute of champagne out for her to grab.

“Why are you over here sulking?”

“I’m not sulking,” she says taking a swig of the clear liquid.

Sam tilts his glass back, too. “Love sucks, huh?”

“I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”

“Well, instead of using this whole publicity stunt as a distraction from how you really feel,” he suggests, looking over at her, only earning an angry glare in return from figuring out what she was doing so easily. “Just tell him how you feel.”

She shakes her head in disagreement. “It’s not that easy.”

“Yeah, it is. Look, _‘Liam, I’m crazy in love with you.’_ See, it’s not that hard.”

She goes to respond, but Liam’s already sauntered over to the pair of them, grinning and seemingly over their small fight from earlier.

“Hey guys,” he says looking between Sam and Fallon.

“I’m gonna go grab another drink,” Sam announces before leaving the pair of them alone.

“Is everything okay, Fal?” He asks carefully, eyes soft and warm and it’s just so _Liam_ of him. To still care and be considerate. “You seem down tonight, like your mind’s elsewhere.”

“I’m fine,” she mutters.

He holds his hand out in front of her. “Dance with me?”

She debates it internally a moment before she silently takes his hand, walking towards the center of the dance floor with him. She finds her hands resting against his shoulders, his hands looped together at her lower back holding her close as they swayed slowly to the music.

“What’s going on, Fal?”

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“You know you can talk to me, right?” She can see Kirby faintly in the distance, watching on, giving her two thumbs up which isn’t nearly as encouraging as Kirby probably hopes it is. “Talk to me.”

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Here went nothing.

“I’m sorry for pulling the whole fake dating thing again on you. And not telling you and just…I’m sorry. I was trying to prove to you how much I still cared about you, about us, but I went about it all wrong. And I was just using it as a distraction to not face how I really felt.”

She feels so vulnerable and open and exposed and she _hates_ it. And she’s fully clothed but she’s swears she’s never felt more naked as she bares her soul out to him.

“I’m really sorry for everything I put you through since we met. Because you were right all along. I did want to be with you, I was just scared. I spent so long running away from my feelings for you because I thought that it was easier, hurting you in almost every way imaginable. And in the end it’s got me nowhere because it’s only hurt me.”

“Fallon,” he breathes out her name, but she doesn’t let it stop her or distract her from continuing.

“This whole publicity thing was just another way for me to run away from how I really felt about you. But, I was being honest when I said I knew what I wanted. And what I want is you.”

She takes one final deep breath before letting a phrase slip that she should have let out months ago.

“I love you, Liam," she pauses, waiting for any type of reaction she can read on him. But his stare is blank and she can't get any sort of feel for what he's thinking after she blurts it out. “I wish I’d just told you that in Sun Valley, instead of doing all those childish things. It was wrong and immature and I’m sorry. I just didn’t know how to tell you how I felt. And maybe you don’t feel that way about me anymore. I just…”

She’s cut off when his lips are suddenly pressed against hers, soft, gentle and warm. All their suppressed feelings bubbling right up again, clawing their way to the surface. It takes her by surprise, but she’s quick to ease into it, smiling into the kiss against him as their lips move together in a easy and natural motion. 

He pulls away, eyes focused only on her, looking at her like she’s the only person that matters.

And then it’s just them. 

In a room full of people, it’s only the two of them, their eyes locked in on each others speaking volumes without any words, more than words ever could.

She leans in, resting her head against his shoulder comfortably, nestling herself in the space between his neck and shoulder. He just tugs her closer in response, arms tightening around her waistline, one sliding up to play with the strands of her hair.His head moves just slightly and she can feel his breath against her ear when he leans in and whispers, “I love you, too, Fal."

**Author's Note:**

> And we'll pretend Alexis' new face is never revealed and they live happily ever after.


End file.
